Pilot Study of External Beam Radiotherapy for Recurrent Unremitting Tracheal Stenosis.

Abstract

Tracheal stenosis can have a variety of presentations, severities, causes, and be a difficult condition to treat. Some patients demonstrate recurrent stenosis after multiple endoscopic treatments and are either poor candidates for open procedures or do not desire open surgery. We sought to evaluate low-dose postoperative external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) as a novel therapy for patients with recurrent tracheal stenosis refractory to endoscopic therapies. We performed a retrospective review of patients with recurrent tracheal stenosis who underwent EBRT in addition to endoscopic dilation. We compared the number of endoscopic procedures required in the 6 months before EBRT to the number required in the 6 months after EBRT. Six patients met criteria for inclusion in our study. The cause of stenosis was variable among the study population. In the 6 months leading up to EBRT, patients underwent an average 6.2 endoscopic procedures. This dropped to an average 1.9 procedures in the 6 months following EBRT (P < .001). Herein, we show that low-dose postoperative external beam radiotherapy (EBRT), a novel therapy for patients with recurrent tracheal stenosis refractory to endoscopic therapies, is effective in decreasing the frequency of endoscopic dilations. 4.